64 years after the first World Cup on Brazilian soil, the football festival of the world returned to its most successful participant. It says a lot about Brazilian football culture that they are still hurting from their 1950 defeat to Uruguay, and this gave them the opportunity to finally lay…

If you had spoken about this game being a dead rubber prior to the tournament, this probably wasn't what you had in mind. Roy Hodgson kept just Gary Cahill and Daniel Sturridge from the team beaten by Uruguay as they switched to a 4-3-3, while Roy Miller and Randall Brenes…

For a team widely-tipped to prop up the group, Costa Rica have done amazingly to top what looked like the toughest group at the tournament. While it's certainly not easy, pulling off a surprise win on the break isn't that uncommon occurrence, yet Costa Rica have shocked partly because they…

Since their victory at the 2011 Copa America, Uruguay have been in something of a downward spiral, scraping into the World Cup with a play-off victory over lowly Jordan. They were never exactly a team best suited to breaking teams down either - primarily functional to give a strong base…